Entrepreneurship in Times of Energy Transition: 'Sustainability Always Pays Off'

"All our cardboard carries the FSC label for responsible forest management. 'Old' displays are collected in stores as waste paper and re-enter the supply chain as raw material. This can happen up to 25 times, after which they are made into toilet paper. We also use elephant grass, for which no trees are cut down at all. This meets the specific requirements of clients like Milka, who only want grass cardboard displays, aligning with their focus on sustainable cultivation and the environment."

"Absolutely. Design, production, and distribution are as green as possible. We design our displays to be as compact and lightweight as possible to reduce the number of transport movements, which we call ECOdesign. We are also one of the first companies to use plant-based inks. All our machines run on sustainably generated electricity from Vattenfall, sourced from Dutch wind farms."

"In June, we moved to an energy-neutral building in Roermond (estimated construction cost: 25 million euros, ed.). We installed 3,000 solar panels on the roof to meet our energy needs. The building is entirely constructed with sustainable materials. Our wall coverings, floor coverings, and tiles are also 100% biodegradable. Additionally, a new, large printing press is being installed to replace our old UV press."

"Previously, we printed with UV ink; it has the highest gloss values. One of our biggest clients is the cosmetics company L'Oréal. For them, the more gloss, the better. But like many other clients, L'Oréal is increasingly focusing on sustainability. This is why we now use water-based varnish, which needs to be applied in multiple layers to achieve the same gloss values as UV varnish. For this, we had a special printing press built, one that didn't exist before. This press alone cost about 5.5 million euros. So, we’re talking about serious investments. But sustainability always pays off."

"The new printing press consumes half the energy of the old one. That's good because we sometimes face capacity shortages on the power grid at certain times of the day. We've worked with Vattenfall to find ways to operate with less electricity consumption. With 25 small monitoring stations in our building, we can now see exactly where the big energy consumers are and which machines we need to phase in to stay below peak demand. It's no wonder we score 'excellent' in our BREEAM certification. In other words, we make very smart use of the available energy in our building."

"We are also exploring the possibility of storing solar energy in batteries. Vattenfall is an important sparring partner in this. A joint venture with the energy supplier is one of the options."

"That you can't sufficiently prove sustainability. How do you measure how green you are? Nowadays, every plastic bottle states that it's made from 'recycled' plastic, but does that mean 1% or 10% reused material? You can already use the recycling logo with just 1% – I think that's unjustified. Large accountancy firms like KPMG are working towards uniform measurability to prevent such greenwashing. A good development."

"Twenty years ago, I was already concerned about the growing waste mountain, the finiteness of resources, overpopulation, and climate change – although these issues are more prominent now. What will my children's children encounter in the future? That was my motivation to see how we can be a commercially successful company with a focus on sustainability. We prove that it can easily go hand in hand."

"If the family supports the green mindset, it's easier to get the entire organization on board. We can quickly decide not to purchase a certain product if it contains harmful substances. The lines of communication are shorter, and the involvement is greater. If we need to make large long-term investments and have a few lean years on paper, that's okay. I don't need to satisfy shareholders year after year with ever-increasing profits."